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03 Jul 2011 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Are you getting enough rest in your life? Ask yourself the following: Do I get sufficient physical rest? That includes finding the right balance of exercise and sleep, invigorating activity as well as restful, rejuvenating times. Do I enjoy enough emotional rest? Ministry is stressful and emotionally demanding. Do I plan enough down time, as well as time with family, friends, and colleagues who let me relax and be myself so I can recharge my emotional batteries? How about spiritual rest? Am I spiritually antsy, suffering from a kind of spiritual insomnia? Or am I able to "rest in God"? In my prayer life, do I turn to God for consolation and strength? Am I able to quiet down the 10,000 voices inside and hear the "still small voice" of God?

Rest balance consolation strength

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Homily stories

03 Jul 2011 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

The average work week for most Americans is 46 hours, although 38 percent of respondents in a National Sleep Foundation study admitted they work more than 50 hours per week. North Americans work nearly nine full weeks more than their Western European counterparts, and working Americans average about two weeks of vacation per year, while the European worker average is five to six weeks. Many working Americans receive no paid vacation at all. Any way you look at it, laborers in the U.S. and Canada are suffering from time poverty and rest deprivation, which in turn is affecting their physical and spiritual health and contributing to a decrease in family socializing, community involvement, and care for the environment. People are just too tied to their jobs to do much of anything else. Several initiatives, including Take Your Time Back, are underway to encourage local and federal agencies to require employers to guarantee more time to employees in leaves and vacations and reduce the amount of compulsory overtime an employer can impose. Long before any of these guarantees are in place, all those who labor and are burdened can find the rest they so desperately need in Jesus—a rest that cannot be revoked or rescinded by political and economic forces, a rest that will protect against ever living out of balance again.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

laborers working americans take your time back balance

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Exploring the word

12 Jun 2016 - Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Two wonderful confrontations are juxtaposed for us this week. First we have Nathan the prophet, having it out for God's sake with David. With brutal honesty Nathan fills one side of the balance with God's goodness to the former obscure shepherd boy: I made you king. I saved you from the original king. I gave you his palace, wives, and offspring—sewing up the future for you. I gave you not one but TWO lands for your kingdom. And that's just for starters: Do you need to hear more? We can imagine the balance arm of God's goodness, already clanked to the floor, heavy with divine benevolence no youngest son of Jesse might ever expect. But Nathan's not finished representing God's case against David: And what did you give me in return? You took another man's wife. Then you had him killed to cover your crime. You took two lives that didn't belong to you. Being master of a kingdom of people wasn't enough? The other arm of the balance is now hovering dreadfully near the floor on the other side, as if denying the richness in the first. The burden of both dishes weighs on David the same: What wonderful things God did! What terrible things David did! How else can David reply but how he does, full of shame? "I have sinned." And this simple admission of guilt is his salvation, and is what turns a would-be monster into the greatest king Israel ever knew. Fast-forward a thousand years. Jesus is dining with a very devout, morally impeccable man. Into the gathering arrives a woman with an expensive flask, doubtless paid for with her many known transgressions. At the feet of Jesus, this woman weeps, wipes, kisses, caresses. The Pharisee's mind is crowded with imagining her vile ways. It's sickening. He can't think of anything else. In his mind, the balance arms of her sinfulness and his fixated disgust are about level. The story Jesus tells next about debtors and creditors makes it obvious that he actually does know "what sort of woman this is who is touching him." But he also sees something, a big something, that the Pharisee has entirely missed. This woman brims with sorrow and with love. Her life is changing, being transformed at the feet of Jesus. Whereas the Pharisee, reclining at his own table, betrays no sign of love, only criticism and the smallness of his heart, which shrinks and hardens further and resists all change. Jesus takes the woman's tears, and her love, and places them into the balance. All of her transgressions in the opposite dish soar into the air and are flung away. The weight of love and tears dismisses them all. Related scripture links Judgment: Matt. 10:11-15; 10:40-42; 12:36-37 Judge not: Isa. 28:6; 30:18; Matt: 5:21-26; 7:1-5; Luke 3:17; Rom. 2:1-11

Authors Alice Camille

balance Forgiveness

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Homily stories

22 Mar 2009 - Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

Most of us have been there—that zombie state from working too many hours for too many days in a row. You say to yourself, “Just one more week, as soon as I finish this one project.” But then that next week comes and you’re not quite finished, and suddenly more days are swallowed up in the frenzy of industry. If you’re lucky, some kind soul—a friend, a family member, a coworker—will finally pull you aside and say: This is going to stop, right? You must be aware of how unhealthy this has gotten. We’re worried about you.” And down deep you know that your life is out of whack, but you think, “It’s just this one project. As soon as it’s over things will be back to normal.” But for most of us, there is always one more project waiting after that. Often, when someone shines the light of sanity on us, we choose to close our eyes. But slowly with God’s grace, we can work our way out of the darkness. Lent is a good time for those of us who get consumed by our work to commit ourselves to taking steps toward the truth of balanced living.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

darkness Lent balanced living working too many

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Exploring the word

02 Apr 2017 - Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Cast your mind back to the first story of Genesis. God divides original chaos into a realm composed of equivalent pairs. Light and darkness are first among them. John the evangelist uses these original siblings as the warp and woof of his gospel. In chapter one, Jesus is introduced as the heavenly light shining to counterbalance history’s darkness. John the Baptist testifies to this light fearlessly, even when it costs him disciples. Light comes into the world; people prefer darkness. As revealed in last week’s story, the morally blind have no use for light. They’re threatened by those who do claim it and offended by the implications. Jesus performs many illuminating signs in John’s narrative that indicate the way of truth, but signs are only beneficial for those who know they’re lost or who seek escape from the confusion of endless night. In preferring darkness, the spiritually blind ensure there will be more of it. When Jesus turns toward Bethany after a period of delay, he notes that each day has 12 hours. In our lopsided culture, this seems a bit short: Aren’t there 16 or 18 hours of day, and fewer of night? Jesus references the biblical day determined by creation, the balanced pairing of opposites. Whatever can be said of modern life, balance isn’t part of the description. This acknowledgment of creation’s balanced design recalls an unexpected passage from Ecclesiastes about everything having its season. There will be time enough for everything, says the sage: killing and healing, weeping and laughing, war and peace. I’ve always found this passage disturbing. Why can’t the world have more of healing, laughing, and peace; less of the dark realities? We must admit every mortal birth prepares the way for yet another death. One may wonder if the Shakers don’t have a point about foregoing the whole procreation cycle. Ecclesiastes doesn’t view killing and healing as moral equivalents, or pass friendly judgment on both sides of each pairing. The sage simply recognizes what is, without asking what should be. Jesus says something similar about the 12-hour day. Light and darkness have their hours. It’s not a perfect world but it is the world we live in. John’s gospel is especially sensitive to the idea that darkness “has its hour.” We can’t afford to be naïve about this. The death of Lazarus is a fact, the way your death and mine will one day be a fact. But what God does with this is most interesting! The crucifixion and death and burial of Jesus are all horrifying facts, yet overturned in the radiant dawn of Easter. In the contest between darkness and light, there’s no contest. The glory of God is the victor. Related scripture links Where the heart is, the treasure is: Luke 12:34 Freedom of the children of God: Rom. 8:20-21 Catechism links Lazarus’ raising—and Jesus’: CCC 640; 646 Resurrection of the body and the flesh: CCC 988-991

Authors Alice Camille

Light darkness balance

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11 Mar 2018 - Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

Most of us have been there—that zombie state from working too many hours for too many days in a row. You say to yourself, “Just one more week, as soon as I finish this one project.” But then that next week comes and you’re not quite finished, and suddenly more days are swallowed up in the frenzy of industry. If you’re lucky, some kind soul—a friend, a family member, a coworker—will finally pull you aside and say: This is going to stop, right? You must be aware of how unhealthy this has gotten. We’re worried about you.” And down deep you know that your life is out of whack, but you think, “It’s just this one project. As soon as it’s over things will be back to normal.” But for most of us, there is always one more project waiting after that. Often, when someone shines the light of sanity on us, we choose to close our eyes. But slowly with God’s grace, we can work our way out of the darkness. Lent is a good time for those of us who get consumed by our work to commit ourselves to taking steps toward the truth of balanced living.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

overwork balanced living

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Homily stories

18 Mar 2018 - Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

One of the secrets of successful businesspeople is, invariably, balance between their personal and professional lives. They’ll say that their weekends are sacrosanct or maybe it’s the nine-hour day. Whatever their terms, the rest of us in less rarified air often fail miserably at balance. Our reasons come in every shape and size: It’s expected that we stay past 7 p.m.; I need the quiet of the weekend to get to this project off my desk; just one more hour will really help me, and I have no plans tonight anyway; I’ve got my kids’ tuition to worry about, so I have to put the extra hours in. Sooner or later, though, that moment of truth comes along when you realize your life is passing you by and you worry that all you have to show for it is work. Consider today’s gospel a wake-up call. We cannot save ourselves from the hour of our deaths. If it comes this day, or the next, what will you regret most? Throughout Lent, try starting each morning reciting this prayer of the psalmist: Give me back the joy of your salvation, and a willing spirit to sustain in me.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

balance time await the hour

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26 Feb 2023 - First Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Flat on my back for three weeks, fighting an infection that ravaged my body and attacked both legs, leading to surgery and talk of possible amputation of one or both, I awoke intact but with a grueling regimen of physical therapy three times a day. Exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually I went through the paces, mumbling like a zombie. One morning I found myself with the challenge of standing on one foot while placing the other gently on top of an orange safety cone. The goal was to not knock the cone over or crush it while retaining my balance. I couldn’t do it no matter what encouragement the young and pretty therapist gave me. Frustrated, I finally kicked the cone across the room shouting, “You don’t get it. I couldn’t do this back when I had two healthy legs.” Embarrassed at my outburst, I just stood there quietly on one leg. “Congratulations!” She smiled. “Look at you. This is the balance I was looking for . . . and the attitude.” That was the genesis of my recovery. Six months later when I baptized her first baby, I stood on one foot and thanked her for helping me find the balance I needed.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

balance

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17 Mar 2024 - Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

One of the secrets of successful businesspeople is, invariably, balance between their personal and professional lives. They’ll say that their weekends are sacrosanct or maybe it’s the nine-hour day. Whatever their terms, the rest of us in less rarified air often fail miserably at balance. Our reasons come in every shape and size: It’s expected that we work past 7 p.m.; I need the quiet of the weekend to get to this project off my desk; just one more hour will really help me, and I have no plans tonight anyway; I’ve got my kids’ tuition to worry about, so I have to put the extra hours in. Sooner or later, though, that moment of truth comes along when you realize your life is passing you by and you worry that all you have to show for it is work. Consider today’s gospel a wake-up call. We cannot save ourselves from the hour of our deaths. If it comes this day, or the next, what will you regret most? Throughout Lent, try starting each morning reciting this prayer of the psalmist: Give me back the joy of your salvation, and a willing spirit to sustain in me.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

balance work

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